Today is the day I do something I told Smitty I’d only do as a sign of the impending apocalypse…rejoining Facebook after over two years away.

I’ve been planning this for a while, actually. I just haven’t had the gumption (or incentive?) to do it.

I originally left Facebook because, simply, it was a time sink. An obsessive one that I didn’t see giving much back for the time spent. So I made a conscious choice to break off my relationship with Facebook, hoping that it didn’t break the relationships with the people who used that as a primary contact point with me. Severing from that community, so to speak.

At first it was difficult; it had grown to be a natural part of my social community needs. I found myself actively having to resist checking… to forcibly extract myself from the environment.

Over time, it became progressively easier. In part, due to the changes wrought by Facebook as the service matured. Also, with being able to stand back and look objectively at it, I realized that a lot of the ties created by Facebook were simply ties created by Facebook. A self-replicating system of networking.

Now, I understand that it’s so far from my realm of current experience that rejoining will include – no, require – relearning that mode of community. A new experience, in essence, as many of my predetermined ideas about Facebook and Facebook community are no longer valid.

So why rejoin?

I believe I’m ready to rejoin that community. I’m different – more mature perhaps? – than I was when I left; I see it through a different lens, which means I’ll use and interact with it in a different way. That’s a good thing, I believe.

Besides that, I see it as important for Barbed Arrow. Rather than isolating myself from that community – a community that has given Barbed Arrow a lot of roots – I believe now I am ready to embrace that again. So not only for myself, but for Barbed Arrow and gaming in general.

Okay, who am I kidding?

The reason I’m coming back is much more basic than all that lofty shit: Pixie is making me do it.